Wall Street Journal

Debate Overview:

As events such as the Arab Spring, Syrian civil war, Israel-Palestine conflict, and the rise of ISIS have revealed a region in turmoil, some argue that the United States has shown considerable restraint in its relations with Middle Eastern countries, when compared to its history of global intervention. While some see a lack of action and praise it as disciplined leadership, others criticize it as a display of weakness and declining influence. As a global power, does America hold a responsibility to enforce order in this unstable region? Moreover, how does the role of peacekeeper fit within its broader foreign relations and ethical obligations? Intelligence Squared US (IQ2US) took on this polarizing topic with a debate on the motion, “Flexing America’s Muscles in the Middle East Will Make Things Worse.”

The economist’s book caused a sensation last year, but now he says the redistributionists drew the wrong conclusions.

‘Capital in the 21st Century,” a dense economic tome written by French economist Thomas Piketty, became a publishing sensation last spring when Harvard University Press released its English translation. The book quickly climbed to the top of best-seller lists, and more than 1.5 million copies are now in circulation in several languages.

The book’s central proposition, that inequality in capitalist societies will inevitably grow, can be summed up with a simple equation: r>g. That is, the return on capital (r) outpaces the growth rate of the economy (g) over time, leading inexorably to the dominance of inherited wealth. Progressives such as Princeton economist Paul Krugman seized on Mr. Piketty’s thesis to justify policies they have long wanted—namely, very high taxes on the wealthy.